3rd ODI – England V Australia – Fantasy Preview

Australian captain and wicketkeeper Tim Paine is left in discomfort after copping a ball to the face during the third ODI at Sophia Gardens.

With another pearler of a batting deck expected at Trent Bridge, scenes from the second match in Cardiff just a couple of days ago could vaguely take on a similar shape after both sides posted 300-plus totals. Australia were lucky to get as close as they did in the end, Shaun Marsh’s flourishing-century gave the green & gold army something to cheer about in what was another scratchy performance.

England have got Australia on the canvas heading into the third ODI in Nottingham, they’re currently 2-0 up in the series which in hindsight was always expected given a large amount of key omissions from the Australian one-day side. Opening batsman Jason Roy showed glimpses of his career-best 180 at the MCG earlier this year during England’s tour down under, but this time he had the crowd right behind him as he walloped a helpless-Aussie attack with yet another century to his name. Stand in skipper Jos Buttler reached deep into his bag of tricks with some incredible ramp shots flying into the sightscreen over the wicketkeeper’s head, followed by some crisp ball striking to find the boundary in his unbeaten-91. Buttler is just about In career-best form in terms of white-ball cricket, his domination for the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL has undoubtedly done wonders for his confidence. Australia couldn’t contain England’s two most destructive batsmen, and they paid the ultimate price in the end. A man who isn’t having as much success at the moment is Alex Hales, he certainly falls into the category of England’s power-hitters alongside Roy and Buttler but fails to deliver more often than not. With in-form opener Jonny Bairstow in some doubt with a knee injury and a torn hamstring keeping Ben Stokes out of the team, Hales must make the most of his opportunity. Regular skipper Eoin Morgan is expected to return after back spasms kept him out of the Cardiff ODI, that should furthermore strengthen their middle order with Joe Root providing a very solid platform at No. 4. It’s hard to think that Australia still haven’t figured out how to cope with spin, both Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid once again took five wickets between them which played a big part in influencing the result. Strongly-built seamer Liam Plunkett backed up his 3/42 at The Oval with a four-wicket haul in Cardiff as he continues to get the job done for England, and it’s fair to say the signs are looking ominous for the hosts.

There’s not a lot Australia can do to stop the bleeding at this point, skipper Tim Paine found that out first hand after he was left bloodied and bruised after being cleaned up by the ball behind the stumps. The Australian captain’s recovery after that sickening blow was somewhat remarkable plucking a spectacular one handed-catch in his mitt to dismiss Jason Roy, unfortunately the rest of his team couldn’t follow in his footsteps as they went down by 38 runs. There were very-little positives to take out of the loss; the only one would have to be Shaun Marsh’s gritty-131 off 116 deliveries at No. 3. Marsh was the only batsman who looked like challenging the English quicks with his solid defence and sudden counterattacking which ended up taking the Aussies deep into the innings before he was cleaned up inches from the finish line. Let’s cut straight to the chase, Australia’s top order is as dysfunctional as it’s ever been for quite some time. There’s intent from Travis Head up the order, but he’s not hanging around while the decision to drop Aaron Finch down the order turned out to be a fizzer. Both Marcus Stoinis and D’Arcy Short don’t look comfortable at the crease, and Tim Paine isn’t your classic wicketkeeper-batsman like Adam Gilchrist and Brad Haddin of yesteryears. The only batsmen that appear to be in tune are Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell and Ashton Agar who wouldn’t have been expected to contribute the amount of runs he has in this series already. To make matters worse, Australia’s bowling attack was slaughtered by the hosts bating line-up as they failed to replace the injured Billy Stanlake who was probably their most promising quick in the side. England are paving the way with the use of the spinners to the best of their advantage, maybe Australia might want to throw Nathan Lyon into the deep end and hope he floats because Ashton Agar can’t continue to play as the specialist spinner in the team given the quality of England’s batting line-up.

Zak Varik is an Australian columnist/writer who specializes in the sports category cricket. With over four years of experience covering all sorts of cricket tournaments around the world, Zak has gained extensive knowledge in International cricket as well as domestic.
“I’ve loved watching cricket since I was about 7 years old, my childhood hero was none other than Andrew “Roy” Symonds who probably enhanced my love of the game through the years”.
Zak is now an established writer for FCN (Fantasy Cricket News) and has also previously represented other Blogs during his time as a writer.

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